Meditation involves thinking. We may analyze a word or a sentence or may reason from some truth of the faith to its application in our life. This reasoning calls forth a variety of affections and practical resolutions to which we give assent by our will. We can meditate on a mystery of our faith or on the life of Christ. We may recall a text of Scripture or a passage of the liturgy, or we may read lovingly the writings of one of the Saints. The goal is to penetrate more intimately into these truths of faith, and to be more personally persuaded of their truth.
God is Pleased by our Efforts
To pray well we need to make an effort to pray with attention and with a conviction of our dependence on God and our own helplessness. We should have a loving trust in his goodness and mercy. We need to persevere in our prayer and to have a great desire for the graces and blessings we ask from our Lord.
We know that God always hears our prayers because our Lord has promised: “If you ask the Father anything in my name, he will grant it to you”. He is always ready to grant our petitions, but He requires us to ask Him by prayer to do so. Prayer is the condition God has laid down for us to obtain His graces and blessings. He always answers our prayers in the way that is best for us.
Our Prayer can make a Difference in the Life of Others
We should pray especially for ourselves, for our parents, relatives, friends, and enemies, for the souls in Purgatory, for the Pope, bishops and priests of the Church and for the officials of our country.
We may not always get what we pray for. God knows what is best for us. He may see that what we are asking for would not be for our good. He knows that often what seems good for us would harm us bodily and spiritually.
The Interior Life
Saint Teresa of Avila says that contemplative prayer is nothing else but a close sharing between friends. It means taking time frequently to be alone with Him whom we know loves us.
Father Garrigou-Lagrange says that the interior life is precisely an elevation and a transformation of the intimate conversation that everyone has with himself, so that it tends to become more and more a conversation with God. The person frees himself from egoism, self love, sensuality, and pride. By frequent prayer he asks the Lord for the ever new graces that he needs.
The choice of time and the duration of prayer comes from a determined will. One does not undertake contemplative prayer only when one has the time: one makes time for the Lord, with a firm determination not to give up, no matter what trials and dryness one may encounter.
What is Contemplative Prayer?
Contemplative prayer is distinguished from meditation. While meditation involves reasoning and analyses of the truth of faith, contemplative prayer might involve a simple gaze at what reminds us of God and a simple movement of the heart. Contemplation may be acquired in cooperation with God’s grace.
The higher levels of contemplation may be infused as a gift from God through special gifts of grace. The perfection of this life of prayer consists in union with God, the greater the simplicity, the more perfect the union. Grace interiorly solicits those who wish to be perfect to become simple, so that they may be made capable of enjoying the one thing necessary, the loving union with God.
